Let’s be honest…I’m not too “linked in” to the blogger community to be tagged in something like this. But I did read it on a friends blog and felt like putting it on mine. I haven’t had too much to write about lately….so….

10 Years Ago:- I was in the middle of 9th grade. (Left: This is me in Grade 9 baby, yeah, this is me in grade 9.) Like the dog collar? – I believe my style consisted of: parachute pants, boys tees, sketchers, and a myriad of jewelry (all worn at once sometimes…like 10 mismatched bracelets, and 3 necklaces, and some random earrings) OR uber flashy disco dresses with platform shoes and the biggest hoop earrings you could possibly find. – I had just chopped my hair off to chin length, and probably died it any of the following colours: red (burgundy, natural red, orange red) blonde, or brown. I never remember. – I played trumpet in a jazz band outside of school. Something I probably should have done longer.

1 Year Ago:
- I was living in Bolivia. (Right: The foothills of the Andes)
- I was in my second last week of work at El Camino Boys Home outside of Santa Cruz ( I just looked back at my calendar for this day of last year. On the 29th of Jan. last year I had just spent a day in downtown Santa Cruz helping give medical care to some of the street kids in the canals)
- I was preparing to spend a week in the Amazon Jungle drilling a well for a local tribe.
- I was probably concerned about a friend on my team who had just contracted Dengue Fever and was not coming to the jungle.

Yesterday:
- I was sicker than a dog with asthma, but was stubbornly trying to work around the house because I had just spent a week in bed.
- I edited photos from my first studio photo session!
- I watched M*A*S*H in my parents office at lunchtime. But I do that every day of the week that I”m not working.

Tomorrow:
- I plan on doing more editing.
- I will clean my house that got ignored while I was sick.
- I will bake some bread. Mmm. And cookies. Mmmmmmm.

5 Things I Would Do With $1,000,000:
- Go back to England.
- Pay off what I owe from when I last went to England.
- Buy a new camera. (Canon 5D Mark II) And lots of camera toys.
- Buy an iPad. I can’t even contain my excitement for this thing. iWant.
- Build/refurbish a nice small energy efficient house close to Vancouver, but still on some property.
(Yes, all my things with money are selfish. Get over it.)

5 Locations I Would Like To Run Away To:
- England. (Did I say that already?)
- Eastern Europe. (We did Hungary, and I want to see more.)
- Turkey. (Didn’t see enough the first time)
- The Mediterranean. (Loved Greece. But I’m miffed that we didn’t get around to Italy. I will see it one day.)
- New York. (Interested in seeing some world famous land marks.)

5 Bad Habits I Have:
- Re-adjusting my back. Apparently chiropractors don’t like that.
- Eating cookies when I shouldn’t.
- Working when I shouldn’t. (I try to give myself certain hours, but sometimes it just feels right to do my work at midnight.)
- Smothering my cat with too much love until he bites me. I can’t not do it. He’s so soft and squishy, I’ve got to hold him. Apparently he doesn’t like this. Apparently it’s not very good to treat your cat like that.
- Biting my lips. Lipstick and me will never be good friends.

6 Things I Love Doing:
- Being a photo taker. I love it. I love it. I love it. But sometimes, I don’t love that it’s so popular.
- Making artisan bread. And I bet you would love to eat it.
- Sewing from scratch. I’m not good at it, bit I still love it.
- Imagining that I live on the Starship Enterprise. Yes, that’s right.
- Making fancy desserts. Mmm.
- Refurbishing things. I love buying old furniture, or decor and making it look new.

5 Things I Most Likely Will Never Wear:
- Crocs = Eternal Damnation in Fashion Hell
- A jacket that is made out of nylon. More specifically, any sort of “weather-proof” jacket. Poo on those. They are ugly.
- Those running shoes with all the weird meshy bits that are all futuristic looking. The closest thing I will get to a running shoe is a puma.
- Purple lipstick. Nope. I got over that phase in grade 8.
- Booty Shorts. I’m pretty sure no one wants to see that.

5 Famous People I Would Like To Meet:
- Patrick Stewart. I almost did in England. I was in the same city. Standing at the box office where he was doing a seminar. I probably breathed the same air. And Dave said, “No, we have to go to a conference.” *sigh*.
- Bing Crosby. I just want to hear his voice.
- William Shatner. Somehow, I think he would be a hoot to meet.
- Nigel Barker (Ok. Yes, I watch America’s Next Top Model online. I think he would have some valuable insight into the fashion photography world.)
- Any one of the original Monty Python cast. Although their huge personalities I think it would be intimidating and overwhelming.

5 Biggest Joys At The Moment:
- My Studio. Can’t wait to use it.
- My new found love of cooking and baking.
- Watching Star Trek TNG every night with Dave.
- Living in my own house.
- My schedule that allows me to spend time with/do all the above.

I took a sick day today. I had an asthma attack last night and am still recovering. On a day where I can’t do any housework and am forced to lay down, all I want to do is watch Star Trek. (But lets be serious…that’s all I ever really want to do even on days when I can do housework. ;D ) Dave & I are working our way through the seasons of TNG (what else is there anyway?) And for serious…it’s the highlight of my day sometimes. I can not and will not ever hide the fact that I am a trekkie through and through. From the very first moment I saw it way back in the day…*sigh*…..This photo was taken with my new softbox (studio lighting for those who don’t know). The lights I have in it are the wrong temperature though (they are warm…and my lights on my umbrellas are cool) so I have to replace them. A little tweaking, however, and you are none the wiser.Well there you have it! Ta da! My sick medicated attempt at blogging.

In the last few weeks, I have just started setting up my home studio. It’s not much, but it’s a start, and I’m stoked. The room is a pretty good size: 25ft x 15ft, with only a bit of it used up from my desk…and the sweetest sofa-bed alive (craigslist!) I bought two umbrella lights from someone on craigslist.com (what a great website!) and I have a softbox that my father-in-law had (just lying around?) I still need to get some backdrops. I’d like to get a white seamless backdrop first, then a black, and then something…a little more creative (still working on that one) Right now I have a blank grey wall, and it’s working. One thing’s for sure: there won’t be any hand painted muslin backdrops here. If I am going to be doing studio, then I want to be sure that I stray from the norm to keep myself on my toes.

I recently have been doing a personal study on lighting techniques and posing from some classic Hollywood photography.

Here’s some of my favorites:

I have some photoshoots set up in the next few weeks where we will be working almost exclusively in the studio. I’m really excited to see what comes of it.

Oh, and by the way–incase you haven’t been here yet, here is my photography website:

This past year as most of you know I spent time in England doing school with an organization called YWAM (Youth With a Mission). We were trained to work out in the mission field. We were informed regularly of many different unstable/severe/downright scary world situations from fellow YWAMers all over the globe. Having grown up in a pacifist tradition (Mennonite) and also spending a great deal of time on my own studying pacifism, I felt even more set in my beliefs in pacifism after YWAM.

While packing for home after YWAM, I passed a friend in the hallway of the school. She had been cleaning out her room, and found a pendant (in the photo) in the trash (I still don’t know why she was going through the trash… ;D ) and gave it to me as a joke. We laughed at how cheesy the pendant was and then parted ways.

Recently I found the pendant again and thought about how ironic it was that it had been thrown away, considering what it said.“World Peace Now” ….Ahh…too much to ask for. It’s not my problem. Trash it.Have we given up on world peace? It feels like it’s a problem that’s so huge, none of us can ever do anything about it. Leave it to the world leaders.Perhaps in the new year there are things that we can do personally that will bring about change. Maybe they’re small. Maybe we won’t see an affect on the world in the new year. Maybe we won’t even see an affect on our city in our lifetime.But if by doing something differently you knew that you could bring peace somewhere, sometime–would you do it?